1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to remote monitoring, and more particularly to a monitor module for remotely monitoring the power initialization of a computer system.
2. Related Art
Generally, there are two major portions involved in the system initialization process of a computer system. One is before first fetching the initialization codes (BIOS) and the other is after starting to fetch the BIOS. The primary process in the former section is to turn on all basic voltage rails with proper basic power-up sequence, and release reset signals. A typical system chipset(s) usually controls the basic power-up sequence on a system board of the computer system. However, only several common power-related initialization statuses such as “power good indication”, “system reset signal status” and etc. are monitored during the system initialization process. For a highly reliable computer system, only monitoring these basic power status signals is lack of implementation flexibility and far behind the control requirements.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which illustrates a typical legacy architecture for monitoring power initialization on a system board. A power-up sequence controller 10, possibly embedded in system chipset(s) or South Bridge, is mainly for controlling the basic power-up sequence of one or more AC (Alternating Current)-DC (Direct Current) power supply 21, DC-DC converters 410, 420, 430, 440 and various basic voltage domains 41, 42, 43, 44. The AC-DC power supply 21 converts AC electricity to several basic DC voltage rails for the basic voltage domains 41, 42, 43, 44. The DC-DC converters 410, 420, 430, 440 converts the basic DC voltage rails to the designed voltage rails and provide to the electrical components 412, 422, 432, 442 involved in the dedicated basic voltage domains 41, 42, 43, 44.
When the system board is turned on with power, the power-up sequence controller 10 needs to transmit basic enable signals Sen to enable the AC-DC power supply 21 and the DC-DC converters 410, 420, 430, 440 according to a basic power-up sequence (FIG. 2) predetermined in a dedicated basic state machine (or sequence machine, not shown) of the power-up sequence controller 10. Specific status monitors 22, 411, 421, 431, 441 detect the output electricity for each of the AC-DC power supply 21 and the DC-DC converters 410, 420, 430, 440, and then send basic valid (or “power good”) signals Sv back to the power-up sequence controller 10 if the output electricity is normal.
However, the power-up sequence controller 10 does not monitor every power initialization statuses/events or every voltage rails during the whole system initialization process on the system board. When the power initialization fails, it is possible that the power-up sequence controller 10 cannot verify exactly which voltage rail is malfunctioned. Similarly, some power initialization statuses/events can not be monitored unless a scope or logic analyzer is used.
Besides, some significant components such as CPU(s) require a specific power-up sequence for enabling various voltage rails. But the built-in state machine of the power-up sequence controller 10 generally does not allow any changes involved in the basic power-up sequence. Furthermore, mostly the available power initialization status signals are typically sent to a LED-type indicator (not shown) for board-level management; which is, namely, difficult for remote system management. Using either the logic analyzer or read the LED indicator needs to open the chassis, which is undoubtedly time/effort consuming. Even though in specific implementation these basic power signals may be sent to a local BMC (Base Management Controller) type circuit (BMC 30 in FIG. 1) for remote control, the monitored status/event signals are still limited and lack of flexibility for system changes.